Anaheim >> Funny. The Ducks certainly didn’t look like a team with the worst offense in the NHL when they dispatched the Winnipeg Jets 4-1 on Sunday at Honda Center. They sure didn’t look like a team with no clue how to put the puck in the back of the net or how to win games.

“We’ve fought through a lot of adversity, everybody together and as a team,” Kesler said after the Ducks improved their post-Christmas break record to 4-0-1 and 16-15-7 overall. “But you know what? We’re playing well and we’ve found our identity.”

Rickard Rakell scored 5 minutes, 51 seconds into the game. Kevin Bieksa added a power-play goal at 9:04 of the first period, his first goal since an offseason trade from the Vancouver Canucks. And Corey Perry made it 3-0 with a laser from the left wing 5:01 into the second.

Kesler then restored the Ducks’ three-goal lead with a power-play goal in the closing moments of the middle period, after Winnipeg’s Tyler Myers scored on a shot that deflected off the stick of Ducks forward Carl Hagelin.

The teams played the third period only because it says you must in the rule book. The Ducks were comfortably and confidently ahead 4-1 with 20 minutes to play, sitting in a rare position of strength in a season in which it didn’t seem they could hit water if they jumped from the Balboa Pier.

“I’m getting a sense we’re playing better,” Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said. “We’ve been playing better on a consistent basis and we’re seeing results now. Hopefully, we can continue that and maintain our focus because it’s going to be a busy month.”

The Ducks went into the game with 68 goals in 37 games in 2015-16. To put that into perspective, their leads of 3-0 and 4-1 over the Jets represented only the fourth game this season in which they’ve held a lead of three goals or more.

The Ducks vaulted from sixth place to third in the Pacific Division standings by playing the sort of attacking game that was so glaringly absent as they began the season with a 1-7-2 record and then measured progress in terms of fits and starts all the way up to the Christmas break.

The Ducks outshot the Jets 35-20.

They defended their net by attacking Winnipeg’s goal.

They created scoring chances and capitalized.

“The coach did a good job of telling us to hit the reset button,” Kesler said, referring to Bruce Boudreau. “He told us to have a good break, come back and play as if starting a new year, a new season. Just go out and do what we do.”

For a time, it seemed Boudreau wouldn’t keep his job long enough to deliver that message. There was plenty of speculation around the league that he might pay the price for the Ducks’ deplorable start to a season in which they were picked by many to win the Stanley Cup in June.

Kesler said he didn’t believe a coaching change would happen.

Or that it was necessary.

“No, everybody has faith in Bruce,” Kesler said. “We, as a team, have never strayed away from that. We like him as a guy and as coach. We’ve worked hard for him and we’re going to continue to work hard for him.”

Elliott Teaford covers the Anaheim Ducks for the Orange County Register and the Southern California News Group. He covered the Ducks for 12 years, including the Stanley Cup season, for the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Breeze before returning to the beat in 2018 for SCNG. He also covered the Lakers for five seasons, including their back-to-back NBA championships in 2009 and '10. He once made a jump shot over future Utah Jazz center Mark Eaton during a pickup game in 1980 at Cypress College.